Overdrawn

If you are a taxpayer in Burlington, this sort of thing could begin to get a little old:

The city school district will close out the 2009 fiscal year June 30 with a deficit of about $757,834. Last year at this time the district posted a deficit of $800,000 to $900,000.
    Freeps

And what the weary taxpayer might find especially troubling is that:

The School Board sought and received voter approval to increase the current budget by 9.9 percent over fiscal year 2008, a rate well above the state average. That increase was not enough to keep pace with expenditures.

This is a problem for the board that spends the money and the voters who elected the members of that board.  But this story does point to the need for a larger, attitudinal change in Vermont (and, indeed, the nation): simply saying that there is not enough money to "keep pace with expenditures," is what was once-upon-a-time called a "cop out."  The money doesn't spend itself and if "expenditures" are somehow beyond the ability of an elected board's control, if they simply occur, like the weather, then what is the point of a board? 

If the problem is with the system, then maybe it is time to change the system.

If the problem is with the people, then maybe it is time to change the people.

Otherwise ... it is "California, Here We Come."

Comments

[Ed G. Mann]

They operate on the same principle all bureaucrats do, to wit: If all monies plus some are not spent, we cannot ask for an increase next year.

The corollary to that reasoning is our budget will then be cut!